PENAL SYSTEMS OF THE SEA: A PLAIDOYER FOR A RESEARCH

The sea: almost a metaphor for the human condition. We know its surface, but very little of its depths. And yet, even in those depths we delve: sometimes cautiously and groping around, until we encounter some manifestation of life that we would have supposed to be completely improbable; sometimes making those abysses a mere object of human intervention, without investigating anything more than things regarding that purpose: and this is the case of the drilling in a seabed that hides some useful resources or the laying of an underwater cable. As happens with intersubjective action, the sea unites and divides. It has favored encounters, ever since we began, in prehistoric times, to ride its waves: which, by their very nature, are refractory to boundaries. After all, today most trade passes through the sea. However, the sea has also supported the ships of slave traders and of colonialism. And it continues to host, much more than yesterday, terrible floating war machines. The sea, like man, gives life and gives death. Water has been the womb of life and marine waters offer nourishment (given that towards its inhabitants – excluding whales, dolphins and turtles – there seems to be less care than for land animals in general). Those waters, then, rise up among the clouds, and from there make fecund the aridity typical of the earth. At the same time, however, the sea can lash the coasts, fuel hurricanes, take on the terrifying force of a tsunami. And also transform itself into a liquid cemetery without gravestones for those who, precisely through the sea, try to open a less painful page in their life: although it would be truly hypocritical, for such a tragedy, to blame the sea.